Dead California

Romance, In a Time Like This?

Robert woke up, shaking the grogginess out of his head and rubbed his eye with his palm, then stood, stretching his arms out and scratched his back while yawning and smacking his cracked lips. He looks to his side to see if his son is anywhere near him, which naturally, he wasn't. Shocker Rob thinks to himself. He decides to take a stroll through the quaint little camp. Gradually, the aroma of cooking food wafted into his nose, making all his senses tingle. His stomach started to growl it must have been loud because a woman heard him.

"Hungry?" she chuckles.

"Starved" he says with a smirk on his face.

She sets down the book she’s reading, stands up and walks over to him holding out her hand, which he takes, kindly and firmly shaking it, with a warm smile. A soft pink fills her cheeks.

"You must be new, I've never seen you around." she points out, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah Johnny brought us in a little while ago. My name's Robert."

She smiles and sits back down in her chair, looking at him a moment, before patting the seat next to her. Still quite exhausted and enjoying his new company, he quickly joins her.

"Mine's Elizabeth." She smiles showing perfect teeth, her striking blue eyes glistening.

Elizabeth what a beautiful name to a beautiful face Robert thought to himself while smiling.

"Nice meeting you Elizabeth, what’re you reading?" he asks nodding toward the book.

"Fifty Shades of Grey." She says wiggling her eyebrows at him and patting the book cover. "Oh really, What made you choose that one?" he says with a smirk.

"What, a woman can't just read a book?" She says sternly.

"Oh, n-no I didn't mean it like that, it's ju-"

Elizabeth starts to laugh "Robert it's okay, I know what you meant. I'm just kidding." Her smile returns.

Robert stops and looks at her admiring her and her beautiful smile, he must have stared off into space because Elizabeth snaps her fingers in front of his face to regain his attention.

"Robert yoo hoo, anyone there?" She waves a hand in front of his eyes.

"Huh, what?" He shakes out of his trance.

"You alright there?" She giggles.

"Oh, yeah I was just thinking about something." Yeah about you...wait what..Robert snap out of it..Susan is still out there possibly..with Exton you can't be thinking about another woman...even though she seems like she is nice and you could use some happiness...NO! You’re still MARRIED until you know she’s… she’s…dead…He sighs, until the sharp ringing of a brass bell pierces his distracted thoughts.

"Ah. Dinner is done, come on let's go get some grub since you are dying over there." She chuckles and gets up, placing the book down on the little table in front of them and starts to walk to the dinner tent with Rob following her.

They show up to the tent, Robert sniffs the air and his mouth begins to water. Elizabeth laughs and nudges him to follow her again.

"It smells delicious. You know, I can't remember the last time I had a decent meal."

Elizabeth frowns but then wipes it off and replaces it with a friendly smile.

"Well today, we're having venison, and lots of it. You shall eat like a king!" She thrust her fist into the air triumphantly and laughs, softly punching his arm.

He smirks and follows her to the dinner line, where they get their food and shuffle out to go sit at a picnic table.

"So..Elizabeth,"

She laughs and puts a hand on his shoulder "Just call me Liz. Saves time." She shrugs.

"Liz," He corrects himself. "How long have you been at this camp?"

She looks up and taps her lip with the fork thinking.

"Hmm, I'd say about three weeks. Johnny found me trying to fight off a few too many of the infected and…assisted me. He asked me to join his camp. If it weren't for him I'd probably be dead." She says while looking down at her meal, poking at it with her fork.

"Wow. So he's quite the life vigilante, huh?" he tilts his head while looking at her, making brief eye contact.

"Yeah, I guess he is. So how did Mister Depp find you?"

"We were driving from Malibu and we ended up in his 'territory', he scared the shit out of me with all of that armor on. But he took off his helmet and I recognized him. We’re old friends, so long story short he offered me a ride back to the camp."

Liz looks at him with amusement. "Territory?" she says laughing hysterically. After a few moments, she wipes away a tear and sighs.

"I didn't know it was that funny." Robert chuckles and picks up their plates putting them in a bin where all the dirty dishes are stacked.

"Thank you, so do you have anyone else with you?" Just then Robert remembered that he forgot to look for Indio and Anna.

"Actually I do." He says looking around to see if they are in the dinner tent and finally, he locates them.

"Yeah those two over there, the boy and the little girl." He says while pointing at them.

"So cute, she your little girl?"

"No. We found her in a suburb just outside of Malibu a day or two ago." He starts to make his way to them and motions for her to follow him to their table.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" Robert says with his hands on his hips looking down at them.

"Oh, hey dad we came back to the tent but you weren't there so we figured you were here eating. Look at that, you’re here. I didn't want to bother you with your… conversation so me and Anna sat over here." He says, winking at him. Robert nudges him.

"This here is my son, Indio." He walks over and bends down behind Anna "And this cutie is Anna." He says tickling her. Anna giggles and Robert laughs, standing up again.

"This is Liz, I met her while I was looking for you two."

"Nice to meet you." Liz smiles and shakes their hands "Well, I gotta go back to my tent see you guys later."

"See ya later Liz." Robert gives her a warm smile which she kindly mirrors and spins on her heel, walking out of the tent.

Robert watches her leave, getting caught in the trance she seemed to put him in and Indio nudges him

"Dad! Not polite to stare." Robert gives him a 'What?' look and Indio shakes his head.

Then they all head outside of the tent and back to their own to get ready for bed.

They make it to the tent and get inside to set up their sleeping areas. Once they’re all done they slip into their sleeping bags.

Liz, she seems nice, funny, and definitely beautiful. I wonder if she has a man, not that that matters…I mean…I hope not. I would like to get to know her more. I wonder if she likes me, if I even appeal to her. Oh who am I kidding...Romance..In a time like this? I don't want to get close to anymore people. I already lost my better half. I miss her so much, she might still be out there, I gotta find her…oh Susan… where are you? I need you now more than ever. His thoughts slowly tore down the emotional wall he had built up as a tear rolls down his cheek. He wipes it off and turns on his side, squeezing the pillow to make it more comfortable and closes his eyes and eventually drifts off to sleep.